The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress is a racing staggerwing biplane originally designed by the father and son team of Lee and Seldon Mahoney with later improvements accomplished by pilot Don Beck.

[4] It was donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum after its last race, where it is currently housed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

[citation needed] Lee Mahoney, the designer, had experience in airframe construction with composite materials, metal-to-composite bonding technologies, and computational fluid dynamics, applying his experience to design Sorceress, and achieve success with several noteworthy design features, including: Use of engine exhaust air flow forms a Coandă effect-bonded laminar flow over the fuselage, increasing rudder efficiency by several orders of magnitude.

The aerofoil sections of the wings are designed as mirror image 'vanes' of symmetrical section - they interfere with each other's flow in a manner which provides very high efficiency in turns, whereas one vane-set/wing begins to lose efficiency, the other gains more, allowing for extremely high lift in turns with minimal loss of velocity Sorceress gains a great deal from composite bonding, with one of the first airframes to demonstrate almost perfect streamlining combined with very great strength; the wing interplane struts are for show only, Sorceress being capable of flight without them, but racing rules require them.

Lee Mahoney took a lot of these criticisms, rule changes and comments personally, speaking about his experiences in an interview with 'Air Progress' magazine:[citation needed] Not withstanding the negative early experiences, Sorceress retains her claim to being the most technologically advanced biplane of any sort ever constructed, and her racing history subsequent to the controversy has gone on to prove the faith and skill of her designer, backers, and pilots.